This is a pretty one

I still call it Strangalia quadrifasciata although I rather suspect it’s been shunted through several different genera over the last 30 years. I still regard it as a scarce species, much more restricted than the common ‘wasp’ longhorn, S. maculata which turns up in gardens, on roadsides and in woodland rides all over the place.

There are lots of them out today, on Addington Hills, near Croydon. This open space marks just about the eastern end of the Surrey heaths.

Also today, my first marbled white of the year, which ever of the native cockroaches, Ectobius species, occurs on acid grassland and Noeeta pupilata, a pretty and pretty scarce picture-wing fly.

The Bugman

CURIOUS? WHY CURIOUS?

When 17th century apothecary and naturalist James Petiver published a picture of what, for 200 years, would be Britain's most enigmatic butterfly, Albin's Hampstead Eye, he reported: "Where it was caught by this curious person". His implication was that Eleazar Albin was not just strange, not just odd, but was fuelled by curiosity.

Ongoing projects:

These are some of the books and other projects going on at the moment......

WASP

Dylan Thomas wondered deeply about the worth of wasps. Although we are not told which authors wrote them, among the 'useful' presents he recieved were 'books that told me everything about the wasp, except why. This is the why.

Beetles — in the Collins New Naturalist series

I like beetles, I like them very much indeed, so I wrote a book about them.

Call of nature: the secret life of dung

A key selling point is the fact that the spine of the book is adorned with an elephant's bottom. Publication: February 2017.

House guests, house pests

A natural history of animals in the home. Click here for details of how to get the now scarce hardback.

The paperbacks were released into the wild in February 2016

How to be a curious entomologist

A series of introductory 'how to' workshops/ seminars. Click here for follow-up information.

Mosquito

Published August 2012. How an irritating but trivial gnat became imbued with dark menace well beyond its diminutive size.